Izzy
by D'Arvit Tyranny
Summary: Three decades later, a Fowl family member dies. In hopeless desolation, the loved ones of the deceased - fairies and humans alike - seek strength within each other to fight the encompassing darkness. One-shot.


**A/N:** **_Rewritten and reloaded!_ **This fic was submitted to Criminality (criminality.popullus.net) for the April-May Challenge. Detailed notes are posted at the end.

> I'd also like to take this time to thank: _Deviant Goddess_, _soap sudd_, _kai-n-rei-4eva_, _Swanny_, _the black knight_, and _the toaster_ for reviewing many of my fics. You guys are **fantabulous**! (hugs them all)

[_Disclaimer:_ I hereby disclaim owning/selling/etcetering anything Artemis Fowl. They are all property of Mister Eoin Colfer. This is purely fanfiction.]

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**IZZY**   
--------------- _By (D'Arvit) Tyranny_ --------------- 

Artemis moved down the stone staircase slowly into the dark hall. The two coats of armour standing erect on either side of the banisters we lit up instantaneously by a blinding vein of lightning. Swords flashed. Shadows raced across the marble walls. Outside, thunder rolled. 

He walked up to the front doors, disabled the security device, and stepped outside. 

The night was a demon. Its sharp wind tore at Artemis' scalp and sent needles up his spine. It poured its black blood over the earth, soaking through his pyjamas to his skin. The demon cackled and flashed its whip. The night was a toxic turmoil. 

Artemis sought its heavy, potent drops and he drank it in, intoxicated and in his despair, enjoying every swallow. 

The demon's hands pushed at Artemis' back, forcing his feet pounding forwards. Artemis let it take him to wherever it wanted. He welcomed its violence. Did this make him feel better, to release his pain, or did this hurt him more, to confront it? Artemis could not think. His head rattled against the screaming mockery of the encompassing night. His throat gasped and then he sobbed. 

And he hurdled into the howling, black infinity, through the descending blood, his feet flying over the slippery gore. So close, so chillingly close behind, the demon chased him?lashing at his back with violent palms, continuously beating his back like a drum, laughing, and laughing, like mad. 

The demon whispered in his ear. 

_Give me your happiness._

Artemis screamed as the voice delved into his skull. A blast of cold rushed up behind him, sweeping him off his feet, and slamming him onto the bloody earth. 

_Take it._

The demon laughed again resoundingly. It bent down, next to Artemis' prostrate form. 

_Where is your resistance? Where is your soul?_

Artemis grinned bitterly against the ground. 

_I've already lost it._

A single cold finger dipped into his skin. 

_I still feel it._

Artemis shook, feeling his insides turn icy cold. 

_I don't._

Lightning rent through the sky again, and a whip lashed violently across his back. 

_Then you won't._

Artemis cried out. And, suddenly, a scream broke into his memories, unravelling his spirit, and like little dissection probes, tore at his love, hope, dreams, and life. The blood continued to pour. 

Those deft, razor-sharp teeth and that snake-like tongue... 

Artemis stayed on his back and let the night consume him. 

Somewhere, two hands permeated the bowels of darkness, and gathered Artemis in a close embrace. The fingers were small but strong. They lifted him from the wet ground and carried him to the nearby wooden pavilion. Artemis clung to the small body and cried out all his residual feelings until he became short of breath and light-headed from lack of oxygen. 

The chill. The wetness. His temperature was rising, and he was acutely aware of how cold he was. Artemis sneezed three times. Reality slowly trickled back into his brain. 

He knew she would come. Was that why he came in the first place? It was difficult to recall. But now that she was here, Artemis didn't know if he wanted to talk to her. Part of his mind felt hostile against her presence. Another part yearned it graspingly. Another part was still frozen. 

The arms that still held him relinquished their grip. Holly Short drew back and looked into Artemis' pale face. She had tears in her eyes. 

"Everybody's got to leave the darkness sometime." 

Artemis hugged Holly, looking away, overwhelmed, and didn't speak. 

"I mourn him also." 

"Tell me..." Artemis whispered. 

Holly swallowed. The drumming of raindrops against the pavilion roof was nothing compared to the drumming of emotion against her heart. The former LEP officer was strong, but she was no less susceptible to melancholy than the Mud Boy crying in her arms. 

"We met as enemies," Holly began, a tributary of tears joining the stream from her hair, "and your father was only about your age now." 

Artemis' breathing slowed, as the familiar story lulled his senses. From Holly's hands, small sparks flowed to his body, and he felt better. 

"He was criminal and heartless. He stayed in his room all day, plotting ways to exploit the People, and grew pale as a vampire. He was not as handsome as you." Holly gave a watery smile of reminiscence. "But he was smarter, without a doubt." 

Artemis managed a defiant nudge. 

She paused. Tonight, Holly did not tell the whole story like she usually did. Death hung over their minds like a grey pall, and they dwelled in a slow grief. The demon still shrieked outside the pavilion, trying to claw its way past the hexagonal cordon of peace, running its fingernail along the thick beams, and looking for flaws. But within, there was a soft determination. That calm, paired with love, was more magic than all of the Lower Elements could harbour. The demon searched fruitlessly. 

"Thirty years ago, after the troll fiasco at the manor, before I was released, your father did something honourable," Holly said, her voice steadier, "He surrendered half the gold he won from the kidnapping to buy a wish for your grandmother. He wished for her sanity, because he loved her so much. I was completely taken aback. For the first time, I saw evidence of human touch, evidence of human kind." 

She held the Mud Boy closer to her as she said this, tears, of a new sense, flowing from her eyes. 

"From that day on, I saw him let that spark of decency grow. He did so many things. You knew him better than I did. And what you knew of him is also better than what I know. Read the stories etched on your own heart. He lives there still." 

There was a brief, comforting silence. 

"I love you, Holly," Artemis said resolutely. 

His fairy godmother laughed - a clear, resonant sound that carried out into the storm and assuaged the night. "Now that's one thing only Artemis Fowl the _Third_ can say to me." 

Artemis smiled, and closed his eyes. Holly kissed him softly on the top of his head. 

"I will love you till the end, Izzy," she said. 

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**Song quotes:**   
- "everybody's got to leave the darkness sometime" from _I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying_ by Sting   
- "evidence of human touch, evidence of human kind" from _The Streets Where You Live_ by Buried Heart   
- "I will love you till the end" from _In Your Keeping_ by Jann Arden

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**A/N:** First of all, Izzy and Holly are NOT IN LOVE. Okay. Moving on, Arty's untimely death is obscured with good reason. I hate establishing futures for Eoin's characters. It creates a rigid framework that gives the story an altogether consistency of dried cement. The same reason goes for not revealing Izzy's mother. These details are open to the erratic designs of your own imaginations, you lucky readers, you. In return, I ask you to leave a dollar in the mug by the door, or write up a review.  
Thank you.  
_(D'ARVIT) TYRANNY_

**Another A/N:** I seriously contemplated 'Missy' and 'Miz'. My under-exercised cerebrum eventually came up with 'Izzy', which is better by far, but its connection to the root word 'Artemis' is not as obvious. Something's burning at me to write more Izzy. With Juliet Butler as his bodyguard. Something's... burning...  
(takes hand off stove)


End file.
